Old friends

Some days ago I had a dinner with my former colleagues from Ericsson.
I had not seen some of them for almost 4 years, and it was nice to meet again and getting up to date about our lives.
We remembered together the good old days, and discussed about the current occupational problems in our country, where in many cases whom you know is more important than what you can do.

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

Qualche giorno fa sono sato a cena con i miei vecchi colleghi dell'Ericsson.
Non vedevo alcuni di loro da quasi 4 anni, ed è stato bello rincontrarsi e aggiornarci sulle nostre vite.
Abbiamo rievocato i vecchi tempi, e discusso degli attuali problemi del lavoro nel nostro Paese, dove in molti casi chi conosci è più importante di quello che sai fare.

Singing in the rain

I wish I could sing in the rain.
In Rome that is actually the last thing you would do, especially if you use public transportation to go to work.
Rain is annoying because it makes you wet; therefore many people, as they wake up in the morning and see the drops on the window, decide to take the car for commuting.
This thing, together with the poor status of the roads and the blocked drains, makes the traffic even more congested on rainy days.
Which vehicle you decide to take on rainy days doesn't really matter: it will be a long trip anyway. But, if you are one of the unlucky guys who uses public transportation, your experience will be much worse.
Buses stuffed with people, everybody carrying really wet umbrellas, old ladies complaining about the government (there's a saying in Italy: "It rains, government thief") and children screaming for the lack of oxygen.
Getting off the bus (or tram) is the most difficult part: people at the stop start closing their umbrellas, and you only have a couple of seconds to escape before they realize they are getting wet and start pushing inside before you are out.

Today was such a day. Good that in Rome it rains few times in a year.